Out-of-control soldiers seen stoking Guinea turmoil
* Lack of discipline in army seen biggest obstacle to peace
* Foreign fighters in military heighten tensions
* Camara's grip on power appears tenuous
By Saliou Samb
CONAKRY, Oct 13 (Reuters) - An irritated soldier fires his rifle into the air from the back of a pickup as it rolls down a battered alleyway, clearing a path through the youths who had gathered there to play kickball.
This is not a war zone but another day in the capital of Guinea, a West African mining powerhouse whose people have been cursed by a generation of bullying military rule and an army that many say is blocking the way to stability.
The leader of the country's ruling military junta, Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, attracted international condemnation after gunmen last month opened fire on opposition protesters in a stadium, killing 157 and wounding more than a thousand according to a local human rights group.
"The army is the bane of democracy in Guinea," said Youssouf Sylla, an international human rights lawyer living in Conakry. "The scale of the massacres, the nature of crimes committed, rapes on women sometimes using gun barrels, shows we have serious reasons to worry," he said.
"Those who got caught climbing the wall trying to escape were finished off with either a machete, a knife or an iron bar," Oumar Camara, a survivor of the Sept. 28 stadium killings, told Reuters.
But the violence in the world's No. 1 bauxite supplier may have less to do with the pariah leader's grip on power than with the culture of anarchy and violence that that has seeped into the country's military over the past 25 years, experts say.
The flare up in Guinea poses a risk to stability elsewhere in the region, including in neighbours Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Ivory Coast, still healing from recent civil wars.
UNGOVERNABLE
Camara's government seized power in a bloodless coup last December after the death of another soldier-turned-head-of-state, Lansana Conte, promising to improve discipline in the army, curb corruption, and transfer government to civilian rule through elections set for January.
But he quickly angered opponents by changing course -- much like his predecessor -- refusing to opt out of the presidential polls, and failing to reign in the military after a series of reported cases of rape and robbery.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I inherited an army where the corporal can say shit to a colonel," Camara told a local radio station after the stadium killings. "There are factions. I do not control the whole army."
Indeed Camara's grip on power appears increasingly tenuous, amid reports of growing divisions at the head of the junta since the stadium shootings. Camara himself has said if he steps down, someone else in the military will take his place.
"Growing diplomatic pressure on the Guinea military regime will likely trigger a 'palace coup' from within the regime," said Sebastian Spio-Garbrah, a political risk analyst at Eurasia Group in London.
The situation is nothing new for Guinea, which has suffered warfare, coups and hardline rule since the 1970s that has bred a systemic lack of discipline into its 15,000 soldiers that could now be the single biggest obstacle to national stability.
FOREIGN FIGHTERS
Guineans also feel that the presence of foreign soldiers in the military, including from war-scarred Liberia and Sierra Leone, have increased tensions from within and have contributed to acts of brutality.
"Some men use methods that do not meet the military ethos and that makes us believe they are foreigners. We believe that Guinean soldiers would never have delivered the abuses we have witnessed on September 28," said political analyst Madani Diallo.
Between 1996 and 2008, the military of the former French colony has caused four major riots over pay, firing into the air and killing dozens of people with stray bullets.
In June 2008, a strike by policemen was violently repressed. And only six months earlier, the military -- also reportedly reinforced by foreign fighters -- fired on civilians engaged in a general strike, leaving at least 130 people dead.
"We need to fundamentally overhaul the recruitment process in order to rebuild the army," said Thierno Maadjou Sow, president of the Organization for Human rights in Guinea.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called on Camara to step down, and the African Union has demanded he opt out of the January elections or face sanctions. France, meanwhile, has cancelled planned technical military aid with the foreign minister saying he can no longer work with Camara's regime.
But serious questions remain among analysts and Guineans over whether the removal of Camara from power is a cure, or just a band-aid for the nation's ills.
"In a normal democracy, the military must agree to submit to civil authority. Until the army accepts this fact, this country will be ungovernable," said political analyst Diallo. (Reporting by Saliou Samb; Writing by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Giles Elgood)
* Foreign fighters in military heighten tensions
* Camara's grip on power appears tenuous
By Saliou Samb
CONAKRY, Oct 13 (Reuters) - An irritated soldier fires his rifle into the air from the back of a pickup as it rolls down a battered alleyway, clearing a path through the youths who had gathered there to play kickball.
This is not a war zone but another day in the capital of Guinea, a West African mining powerhouse whose people have been cursed by a generation of bullying military rule and an army that many say is blocking the way to stability.
The leader of the country's ruling military junta, Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, attracted international condemnation after gunmen last month opened fire on opposition protesters in a stadium, killing 157 and wounding more than a thousand according to a local human rights group.
"The army is the bane of democracy in Guinea," said Youssouf Sylla, an international human rights lawyer living in Conakry. "The scale of the massacres, the nature of crimes committed, rapes on women sometimes using gun barrels, shows we have serious reasons to worry," he said.
"Those who got caught climbing the wall trying to escape were finished off with either a machete, a knife or an iron bar," Oumar Camara, a survivor of the Sept. 28 stadium killings, told Reuters.
But the violence in the world's No. 1 bauxite supplier may have less to do with the pariah leader's grip on power than with the culture of anarchy and violence that that has seeped into the country's military over the past 25 years, experts say.
The flare up in Guinea poses a risk to stability elsewhere in the region, including in neighbours Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Ivory Coast, still healing from recent civil wars.
UNGOVERNABLE
Camara's government seized power in a bloodless coup last December after the death of another soldier-turned-head-of-state, Lansana Conte, promising to improve discipline in the army, curb corruption, and transfer government to civilian rule through elections set for January.
But he quickly angered opponents by changing course -- much like his predecessor -- refusing to opt out of the presidential polls, and failing to reign in the military after a series of reported cases of rape and robbery.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I inherited an army where the corporal can say shit to a colonel," Camara told a local radio station after the stadium killings. "There are factions. I do not control the whole army."
Indeed Camara's grip on power appears increasingly tenuous, amid reports of growing divisions at the head of the junta since the stadium shootings. Camara himself has said if he steps down, someone else in the military will take his place.
"Growing diplomatic pressure on the Guinea military regime will likely trigger a 'palace coup' from within the regime," said Sebastian Spio-Garbrah, a political risk analyst at Eurasia Group in London.
The situation is nothing new for Guinea, which has suffered warfare, coups and hardline rule since the 1970s that has bred a systemic lack of discipline into its 15,000 soldiers that could now be the single biggest obstacle to national stability.
FOREIGN FIGHTERS
Guineans also feel that the presence of foreign soldiers in the military, including from war-scarred Liberia and Sierra Leone, have increased tensions from within and have contributed to acts of brutality.
"Some men use methods that do not meet the military ethos and that makes us believe they are foreigners. We believe that Guinean soldiers would never have delivered the abuses we have witnessed on September 28," said political analyst Madani Diallo.
Between 1996 and 2008, the military of the former French colony has caused four major riots over pay, firing into the air and killing dozens of people with stray bullets.
In June 2008, a strike by policemen was violently repressed. And only six months earlier, the military -- also reportedly reinforced by foreign fighters -- fired on civilians engaged in a general strike, leaving at least 130 people dead.
"We need to fundamentally overhaul the recruitment process in order to rebuild the army," said Thierno Maadjou Sow, president of the Organization for Human rights in Guinea.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called on Camara to step down, and the African Union has demanded he opt out of the January elections or face sanctions. France, meanwhile, has cancelled planned technical military aid with the foreign minister saying he can no longer work with Camara's regime.
But serious questions remain among analysts and Guineans over whether the removal of Camara from power is a cure, or just a band-aid for the nation's ills.
"In a normal democracy, the military must agree to submit to civil authority. Until the army accepts this fact, this country will be ungovernable," said political analyst Diallo. (Reporting by Saliou Samb; Writing by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Giles Elgood)
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